The University of Phoenix (UOPX) is an American for-profit institution of higher learning, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The university has an open-enrollment admission policy, requiring a high-school diploma, GED, or its equivalent as its criterion for admissions.[4] The university has 112 campuses worldwide and confers degrees in over 100 degree programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree levels.[5] It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc., a publicly traded (NASDAQ: APOL) Phoenix-based corporation that owns several for-profit educational institutions.

The University of Phoenix attained a peak enrollment of almost 600,000 students in 2010, but its numbers have declined to 227,000 as of 2015.[6] The enrollment drop (and more than 100 campus closings) have been attributed to operational changes amid criticism of high debt loads and low job prospects for university students.[7] University of Phoenix has also gained greater scrutiny and criticism by the US government, investigative reporters, and US popular culture humorists.[8][9][10][11]

History[edit]

The university was founded by John Sperling, who said that "working adult students were often invisible on traditional campuses and treated as second-class citizens."[12] Started in 1976 in the Phoenix metropolitan area,[12] the first class consisted of eight students.[13] In 1980, the school expanded to San Jose, California, and in 1989, the university launched its online program.[14]

In 1994, University of Phoenix leaders made the decision to take the parent company, Apollo Group public. "The capital from Wall Street allowed the University of Phoenix to grow quickly. Within five years of going public, the school had more than 100,000 students. Enrollment was growing by more than 25 percent a year."[15]

The 2012 Harkin commission report stated in "the 2000s, Apollo appeared to have made critical decisions that prioritized financial success over student success."[8]

enrollments at the University of Phoenix and in the for-profit sector over all have been declining in the last two years, partly because of growing competition from other online providers, including nonprofit and public universities, and a steady drumroll of negative publicity about the sector's recruiting abuses, low graduation rates and high default rates ... including many charges that the schools enrolled students who had almost no chance of succeeding, to get their federal student aid.[3]

According to an article by Brian Stoffel at the Motley Fool "tens of thousands of students were being recruited [by for-profit colleges] for a service that wasn't fit for their personal circumstances – leaving them with little to show for their decision but a boatload of debt."[16] Some critics have referred to Apollo Group and University of Phoenix as criminal enterprises that prey upon veterans, women, people of color, and socially isolated individuals.[17][18][19][20]

In Mission Forsaken, former co-founder of University of Phoenix, John D. Murphy wrote about the school's devolution from a successful provider of working adult continuing education programs into a money making machine whose sole criteria for admission was eligibility for federally funded student loans .[21] University of Phoenix was also frequently mentioned in Suzanne Mettler's "Degrees of Inequality" and David Halperin's "Stealing America's Future: How For-Profit Colleges Scam Taxpayers and Ruin Students' Lives." [22][23][24]

Campuses[edit]

While the school specializes in online programs, the campuses offer additional programs and services.[25] Online students are also able to use tutoring and social centers, which can also be used for social and student meetings. The first center opened in 2007 in Plano, Texas.[26]

Students have access to class-specific online resources, which include an electronic library, textbooks, and other ancillary material required for a course. The university says that the electronic textbooks include search features and hyperlinks to glossary terms that make the books easier to use for research.[27]

Academics[edit]

The university offers degree programs through seven colleges and two schools.[28] These are named the School of Advanced Studies, School of Business, College of Criminal Justice and Security, College of Education, College of Humanities, College of Information Systems and Technology, College of Natural Sciences, College of Nursing, and the College of Social Sciences. In addition to its traditional education programs, the school offers continuing education courses for teachers and practitioners, professional development courses for companies, and specialized courses of study for military personnel.[29]

Students spend 20 to 24 hours with an instructor during each course, compared with about 40 hours at a traditional university. The university also requires students to collaborate by working on learning team projects, wherein the class will be divided into learning teams of four to five students. Each learning team is assigned a team forum where team members will discuss the project and submit their agreed upon portions of the learning team assignment for compilation by the nominated learning team leader. The concept of learning teams is somewhat uncommon in traditional academia; however, the University of Phoenix believes that collaborating on projects and having individuals rely on each other reflects the real working conditions of the corporate world.[30]

Through its online portal, eCampus, University of Phoenix students also have access to software required for coursework. Available, for example, are virtual companies created by the university to provide students with assignments, which Adam Honea, UOPX's dean and provost, claims are more realistic than those available with case studies.[31] In August 2011, Apollo group announced it would buy 100% of Carnegie Learning to accelerate its efforts to incorporate adaptive learning into its academic platform.[32]

Some academics and former students feel the abbreviated courses and the use of learning teams result in an inferior education.[33][34][35] The University of Phoenix has been criticized for lack of academic rigor. Henry M. Levin, a professor of higher education at Teachers College at Columbia University, called its business degree an "MBA Lite," saying "I've looked at [its] course materials. It's a very low level of instruction."[34] In May 2008, the university announced the formation of the University of Phoenix National Research Center, designed to study which teaching methods work best for nontraditional students.[36]

Admissions and financial aid[edit]

The University of Phoenix has an open admissions policy.[37] In response to complaints about the use of financial aid by for-profit colleges in 2010 the university began an orientation program designed to lower dropout and default rates.[38] Students must successfully complete a three-week orientation workshop in order to be eligible to start their first credit/cost bearing course.[39] Students who do not complete the workshop after two attempts must wait six months before attempting again.

Phoenix recruited students using high-pressure sales tactics[40] by admissions counselors who are paid, in part, based on their success in recruiting students.[35] Since 2010, changes were implemented to the way the university recruits students.[41]

USA Today has listed University of Phoenix as a "red flag" institution for posting a student loan default rate (26%) that surpassed its graduation rate (17%).[44] According to USA Today, the University of Phoenix's Detroit campus has a graduation rate of only 10%, but a student loan default rate of 26.4%.[45] A 2010 report found that the University of Phoenix's online graduation rate was only 5 percent.[46] According to collegecalc.org, tuition costs are typically 300% to 500% more expensive than community colleges.[47]

Accreditation[edit]

The University of Phoenix has been regionally accredited since 1978 by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) as a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). In February 2013, a peer review group recommended to the HLC that the university be put on probation because the University of Phoenix "has insufficient autonomy relative to its parent corporation."[48] On May 9, 2013, the Apollo Group filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission which stated that the HLC Institutional Actions Council First Committee ("IACFC") had recommended to the HLC that the university retain its regional accreditation, but that the university be placed on "notice" for two years. Their concerns center on the university's governance, student assessment, and faculty scholarship in relation to PhD programs.[49] The final decision will be determined on June 27, 2013, and sent to the university in the weeks thereafter.[50] On July 10, 2013 Apollo Group Inc. announced that HLC renewed University of Phoenix accreditation through 2023 and placed on "notice" for two-years.[51]

College of Social Sciences – The Master of Science in Counseling program in Community Counseling (Phoenix and Tucson campuses ONLY), the Master of Science in Counseling program in Mental Health Counseling (Utah campuses ONLY), and the Master of Science in Counseling program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Phoenix and Tucson campuses ONLY) are accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).[58]

Marketing and advertising[edit]

Apollo Group, University of Phoenix's parent company, spends between $376 million and $655 million per year on advertising and marketing, which includes the University of Phoenix brand. Much of this advertising is Internet advertising.[59][60]

Political and corporate alliances[edit]

Several American policymakers have been affiliated with the University of Phoenix and its parent company, Apollo Group. Former George H. W. Bush appointee and head of the US Department of Education, Margaret Spellings, has been a member of the Apollo Group Board of Directors.[62] Jane Oates, a former staffer for Senator Ted Kennedy and Department of Labor official in the is currently a vice president at Apollo Group.[63] US Representative Nancy Pelosi's close friendship with former University of Phoenix founder John Sperling has been documented by Suzanne Mettler in her book "Degrees of Inequality." [64]National Action Network's civil rights leader Al Sharpton has also been linked to University of Phoenix, as the sponsor of Education Nation on MSNBC.[65]

Governmental lawsuits and investigations[edit]

The university has paid several government fines and settledwhistle-blower lawsuits concerning its admissions practices and education programs.[69] In 2000, the federal government fined the university $6 million for including study-group meetings as instructional hours. In 2002, the Department of Education relaxed requirements on instructional hours.[33][34][70]

A 2003 lawsuit filed by two former university recruiters alleged that the university improperly obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid by paying its admission counselors based on the number of students they enrolled, a violation of the Higher Education Act.[33][34][71][72][73] The university's parent company settled by paying the government $67.5 million, plus $11 million in legal fees, without admitting any wrongdoing.[74][75]

In 2004, the Department of Education alleged that UOPX again violated Higher Education Act provisions that prohibit offering financial incentives to admission representatives and pressured its recruiters to enroll students.[76] UOPX disputed the findings but paid a $9.8 million fine as part of a settlement where it admitted no wrongdoing and was not required to return any financial aid funds.[77][78][79] The university also paid $3.5 million to the Department of Labor to settle a violation of overtime compensation regarding hours worked by UOPX's recruiters.[80][81] The University of Phoenix settled a false-claims suit for $78.5 million in 2009 over its recruiter-pay practices.[82]

In 2008, the university was the top recipient of student financial aid funds, receiving nearly $2.48 billion.[83] In 2009, the Department of Education produced a report that claimed the untimely return of unearned Title IV funds for more than 10 percent of sampled students. The report also expressed concern that some students register and begin attending classes before completely understanding the implications of enrollment, including their eligibility for student financial aid. In January 2010, the parent company Apollo Group was required to post a letter of credit for $125 million by January 30 of the same year.[84] In 2010, UOPX came under government scrutiny after its Phoenix and Philadelphia campuses were found to have been engaging in deceptive enrollment practices and fraudulent solicitation of FAFSA funds.[85][86]

On May 25, 2011, Apollo Group was notified that a complaint had been filed by under the Federal False Claims Act and California False Claims Act. The complaint alleges that University of Phoenix has violated the Federal False Claims Act since December 12, 2009 and the California False Claims Act for the preceding ten years by falsely certifying to the U.S. Department of Education and the State of California that University of Phoenix was in compliance with various regulations that require compliance with federal rules regarding the payment of incentive compensation to admissions personnel, in connection with University of Phoenix's participation in student financial aid programs. The relators seek significant damages on behalf of the US Department of Education and the State of California, including all student financial aid disbursed by the Department of education to University of Phoenix students since December 2009 and by the State of California since 2001.[87]

In 2014 the US Department of Education's Office of the Inspector General demanded records from the University of Phoenix and its parent company Apollo Group going back to 2007 "related to marketing, recruitment, enrollment, financial aid, fraud prevention, [and] student retention."[88]

Several other investigations and lawsuits continue to be pending, including attorneys general cases in Florida, Massachusetts, and Delaware.[87]

People[edit]

Students[edit]

The average age of a University of Phoenix student is between 33 (undergraduate) and 36 (graduate), and most students have work-related commitments.[89] The University states that nearly two-thirds of its students are women and that a plurality of students attending the school study business (undergraduate students representing 29.9% and graduate students 12.9%), followed closely by those enrolled in Axia College for Associate's degrees (28.1%).[90][91]

The student population is approximately 25% African-American and almost 13% Latino.[92] The university graduates the largest number of underrepresented students with master's degrees in business, health care, and education of any U.S. school.[93][94]

In 2013, the US Department of Defense ended its contract with University of Phoenix for military bases in Europe.[95]

When calculated using the standards set by the Department of Education, the university's overall graduation rate is 16 percent, which, when compared to the national average of 55 percent, is among the nation's lowest. The federal standard measures graduation rates as the percentage of first-time undergraduates who obtain a degree within six years. This measurement does not take into consideration the typical University of Phoenix student who comes to the University as a dropout from another institution, so is not a first-time college student.[34]

The university acknowledges the 16-percent graduation rate but takes exception to the standard used by the Department of Education to calculate the rate, saying that the rate is based upon criteria that apply to only seven percent of the university's student population.[35] The university publishes a "self-calculated" graduation rate of 59 percent to account for its large population of non-traditional students.[34]

Faculty[edit]

The university's faculty consists of approximately 1,500 core faculty and 20,000 associate (part-time or adjunct) faculty members who all hold graduate degrees.[96] Its reliance on part-time faculty – 95 percent of Phoenix instructors teach part-time, compared to an average of 47 percent nationwide – has been criticized by regulators and academic critics. Most of the classes are centrally crafted and standardized across teachers in order to ensure consistency and reduce costs for the school. Additionally, faculty members do not get tenure.[33][34][35] According to a university officer, pre-screened instructional candidates participate in a training program in the discipline in which they teach, which he states has the effect of weeding out 40 percent to 50 percent of the less-committed or -capable applicants.[97]

African-Americans make up more than fifteen percent of the university's 22,000 faculty members, and about six percent are Latino.[92]